Cherishing our Parents # 1

Meditation

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Cherishing our Parents # 1

 

 

Likewise a person, who has been fully raised, always wants to pay their debt of gratitude to both parents and benefactors.

 

“A full-grown tree that has been cared for with the right amount of water and fertilizer can bloom and give fruit to its owner.

 

Likewise a person, who has been fully raised, always wants to pay their debt of gratitude to both parents and benefactors.

 

Just as you can tell the difference between a gold-plated object and one that is solid gold by passing it through a flame, you can tell if someone is truly virtuous by how they cherish they parents.”

 

The Debt of Gratitude to Our Parents 

 

Lord Buddha taught that if we were to carry both parents, one on each shoulder, for one hundred years, spoon-feeding them and allowing them to urinate and defecate on us, it would still be not be sufficient enough to fully repay our debt of gratitude to them.

 

Another well-known proverb states that if we were to use the sky as our paper, the tip of Mount Sumeru as our pen and the water from all the oceans as our ink, even if we were to write the virtues of our parents in the sky until there were no place left to write, the mountains worn down, and the seawater run dry we would still not have reached an end to the virtue of our parents.

 

 

Parents serve as the physical mold

 

The debt of a child to his parents can be summarized as:

 

1. Parents serve as the physical mold

 

A mold increases a material’s value. For example, a piece of clay can be molded into a doll, which increases the clay’s value because can be used for home decoration. Yet the same piece of clay, if it is used to mold a Buddha, will increase more in value because people would then be able to pay respect to it. By this reasoning, the value of a piece of clay depends upon its mold.

 

Similarly, animals such as elephants, horses, cows and buffalo are born with certain levels of intelligence. However, they cannot make merit to its fullest. We are lucky to be born as humans and have the form of a body rather than that of an animal. This body allows us to make all types of merit because we accumulate great knowledge and ability. All these benefits come from the grace of our parents who give us a physical mold.

 

2. Parents serve as the spiritual mold.

 

They foster and nurture, teach and educate us in both moral and worldly knowledge. Our debt of gratitude to our parents for giving us a physical mold is enormous. Moreover, if they raise and teach us, serving as spiritual mold, our debt of gratitude to them is infinitely multiplied.

 

 

Parents serve as the spiritual mold.

 

Illustrative examples of Parents:

 

Our parents can be compared to a saint, one’s first guardian angel, teacher, and holy being.

 

1. Parents as Saint: parents exhibit all the underlying virtues which are also exhibited by a Saint, i.e. the four Divine Abidings (brahmavihara):

 

- Loving-kindness (metta): parents have the never ending wish that their children should remove themselves from all types of suffering.

 

- Compassion (karuna): parents make every effort to diminish the suffering of their children, never neglecting their child.

 

- Sympathetic Joy (mudita): whenever the child experiences success or happiness, the parents experience that success and happiness as if it was their own.

 

- Equanimity (upekkha):when the child has their own family and is able to liik after their own affairs, the parents no longer interfere. If the children make mistakes, the parents refrain from saying “I told you so”, but give their opinion when asked for it.

 

 

parents exhibit all the underlying virtues which are also exhibited by a Saint

 

2. Parents as One’s First Guardian Angel: They are the first people the child knows and offers their full protection to the child.

 

3. Parents as First Teacher:

 

The parents are the first people known to the child and teach and train the child in every aspect. This includes: how to walk, talk, or how to cultivate good manners.

 

4. Parents as a Holy Being: Parents also exhibit these four qualities:

 

- They bring great benefit to the child: The parents fulfill the challenging duty of caring for the child in every way.

 

- They command respect but are endearing: protecting the child from all dangers, they also manage to bring gentle warmth to the child’s life.

 

- They are the child]s field of merit: They have complete and pure intentions towards their children, making them a worthy object for the child’s merit-making.

 

- They are worthy of being paid respect to : a child should express his respect for his parents.

 

 

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